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Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of Quality-to-Price Ratios (QPRs). Because we are located in Seattle, Washington, we have a special interest in Washington State wines.

In the course of our wine journey, we also enjoy numerous wine-related activities such as traveling throughout wine country, visiting vineyards, reading wine books, and trying wine gadgets, all of which we share with our readers.

During my recent media trip to Chile, I had the pleasure to visit a number of its wineries and vineyards and meet many of the movers and shakers in the Chilean wine industry. I am individually highlighting some of the wine regions we visited including reviews of wines I tasted from those regions. Today, I am focusing on the Maipo Valley, the closest wine region to the city of Santiago.

The Maipo Valley spans from the Andes to the coast and is one of Chile’s oldest and most well-known wine regions. Best known for its red wines, the Maipo Valley does well with Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, and Syrah. We tasted a number of wines from several producers whose grapes came from the Maipo Valley. Our winery visits in the Maipo Valley were to Santa Rita and Santa Carolina.

Founded in 1880 by Domingo Fernandez Concha, Santa Rita Winery was among the first to pioneer plantings of European grape varieties in Chile. In 1980, its present owner, Gruppo Claro, acquired Santa Rita. The winery has vineyards in several of Chile’s appellations including the Maipo Valley, Apalta, Casablanca, Rapel, Leyda, and Curico. Santa Rita’s total production is about 1.7 million cases per year. Casa Real was the Concha family’s summer home. Today, it is recognized as a National Monument of Chile and has been converted to a hotel with 16 rooms. Santa Rita uses the house image on its labels. The winery property is gorgeous and tourist-friendly with stately buildings, a beautiful chapel, a museum, restaurants, and a park in addition to its production facilities. The park on the grounds covers 43 hectares and has a very European feel. They host classical concerts to mark the beginning of each season.

Santa Carolina is one of the oldest wineries in Chile, founded in 1875. Founded by four winemakers who came from France, the house on the Santa Carolina property was built in 1875 and is a Chilean national monument. It was damaged during the 2010 earthquake, and it had to be rebuilt exactly as it was. Today, the house is used as offices for the winery. Santa Carolina was the first Chilean winery to receive an award outside of Chile, in France in 1889.

Reader's Comments

Bill,
Overall I was very impressed with Santa Rita. Even though they have a high production level, they are making excellent wines across a variety of price points. And their high end wines, which are not seen as often here in the US, are outstanding. Cheers!